When I Look In Your Eyes

Hello, Sebastian pug here!

Because I was a naughty boy in my last Rally Advanced Trial, my owner has made me start a stupid dance class --- she calls it Canine Freestyle, and she has learned all sorts of stupid stuff that she says will make me a better performer.

Since she took this fancy online course with freestyle teacher Michelle Pouliot, my owner keeps mumbling fancy things like "cure the lure" and "clean training".

What? She's taking away lures?! I thought I had made it abundantly clear that I ONLY work for food!

She says she doesn't agree with me though and says we are going to "retrain" .... whatever that means. She says that our 1st and primary goal will be "Clean Training".

I asker her, "What on earth is 'clean training'? Are you going to make me start cleaning the blasted house?"

She said, no, really, "clean training" has to do with my skills as a handler and I'm going to have to retrain some things that I did as the human.

(Ha .... I could have told her that! I've been trying to teach her for years now!)

She says she is going to try to avoid creating "visual cues and lures" which I have come to rely on.

Things like:

*she initiates training sessions showing me the treat pouch and toys (the visible rewards) 
*she initiates training sessions by showing me the blasted clicker ... doesn't she know that the clicker is an AURAL marker, not a VISUAL marker? 
*she moves her hand that gives me the treat at the moment she clicks -- this "blocks" the sound of the click and makes it less effective so I don't really pay attention to anything but the treat. (duh)

*she always lets me look at the treat when she asks me to do something, instead of making me look at her face and eyes. 

(By the way, I think this is probably going to be our blasted theme song from now on ....)

My owner/handler is also going to try to stop using physical lures more than just a couple of times (if I need a little help at first learning a new trick) in order to get me to do something. (Ha ... good luck with that one LMAO!)

She also said she is going to need to work on her clicker skills -- specifically, when exactly to click. (It's really funny ... sometimes she'll have the clicker upside down and try to click when I sit or bow or do some cool move, but when she finally figures out how to click it I'm already scratching my ear or licking my privates. What? She wants me to do this in front of an AUDIENCE?! Jeebers.)

So, I guess she really needs to decide if she's marking:
a) when I do my awesome bow
or
b) when I scratch my ears

(I probably ought to tell her that, IF SHE OBSERVED ME CLOSELY, she would actually see that I'm giving her signs that I'm about to perform a specific behavior. Maybe that would give her time to figure out how to work the clicker! lol.)

So, according to all these training courses, if she clicks the clicker, then that tells me that I'll receive a reinforcer! But, when she clicks the clicker when she's actually reaching for the treat in her treat pouch, then I'm thinking, "OK, I guess I got that click and am going to get a treat because she is reaching for a treat in her treat bag. My how limber her arm is reaching behind her back to get that treat .... from the pouch THAT I KNOW IS THERE! duh.

So, my owner says she is going to try to work to deliver the reinforcer as a distinctly separate physical motion from the event marker. Or, more simply put, "CLICK .... THEN TREAT", not "CLICK WHILE REACHING FOR TREAT."

She says this is important because: 

*" If she lumps the click and the reward delivery into one action, the impact of the click is likely to be diluted or even blocked. (Heck, I'm not going to hear that click when she's showing me a handful of Filet Mignon!!!)

To reinstate, if my owner's treat hand is already in motion at the time she clicks, I'm going to be totally focused on that handful of Filet Mignon instead of the click! The click will be “blocked” by the motion of my owner's hand flashing around the filet mignon! I'm not going to notice what behavior or movement I was doing that triggered that click .... I'm ONLY going to notice that delicious filet mignon!!

But this click can also be "blocked" actually by ANYTHING that distracts me from my awareness of the behavior I'm performing during the click. It could be an action, a noise, a visual stimulus that is occurring before or during the click. 

-hand movement
-showing me the food pouch
-body movements (she always stands a bit straighter just before giving me a treat!)
-words spoken before or during the click (if she would only stop talking I could hear the clicker!)
-pointing the clicker at me is also distracting ... it's a sort of "false click". Remember, the clicker itself should not become a visual cue for the dog to respond, only the SOUND of the clicker is the intended behavior marker.

She says that clicker training is most powerful when the I'm not distracted by false signals or “clicks” from other events.

Any of these things will prevent me, the dog, from understanding what my owner is actually rewarding me for! (Was I sitting? I didn't notice!)

If I were nice, I, Sebastian pug, would tell my poor owner that she always moves her reward hand too early to get the treat ready. So, I'm thinking that the movement of her hand is the cue for reward coming, rather than MY awesome bow or sit causing the reward to happen. 

But, she can't read my mind, evidently.

If I were a nice pug, I'd tell my owner that she needs to practice on how to more cleanly deliver the reinforcer as a COMPLETELY SEPARATE EVENT from the click. She needs to make sure the click and the delivery of the reinforcer do not overlap, but happen sequentially: click and then treat. Otherwise, I'll stay a booger forever and only work for food until I'm in a pug nursing home.


Maybe I should sing her this song at the next training session?

So, for our 1st session, I will work to CURE THE LURE. In dog training, anything that prompts the dog to perform as a result of sensing (e.g. seeing or smelling) something it desires is a type of lure that can easily become part of the cue.

A lure could be food in the hand, physical movement of the handler, a bait bag, a toy sticking out of the pocket, etc.

I remember my owner mumbling something about her "ULTIMATE GOAL" --- that she, as the owner, would be the strongest lure to me.....that my mere presence (without her needing to hold food or toys) would prompt me, Sebastian pug, to perform. 

Well, I guess I'll humor her and let her keep striving for enthusiasm in my cute little pigs fly pug self.

I think we both learned the hard way that lures can be problematic in a training program, especially when the ultimate goal is to perform without the presence of a lure. So, maybe if she "cures the lure" then I might consider doing sit strikes in the next trial!

Might. 

Well, here are some video clips from our 1st dance class -- ahem, canine freestyle training sessions. We worked on what she called "Attention Duration". It was really VERY simple ... all I had to do was look into her eyes. Every time my eyes met hers, she clicked and I got a treat! (I really felt like I was back in Kindergarten, but it was still fun.)

SESSION 1: ATTENTION DURATION:

According to that freestyle teacher, Michelle Pouliot, "Attention is the most important foundation behavior a freestyle dog must have. Attention is the ability and desire to focus on the handler throughout an entire routine in a distractive environment." "In freestyle performance situations the dog must be able to maintain full attention to the handler in a distractive environment, for up to 5 minutes. Full attention means the dog is able to maintain 100% of his attention on the handler without the handler giving ongoing prompts or additional cues."

So, my I guess I need to give 100% of my attention to my dancing partner's! I'm going to need to be able to take cues immediately or perform fancy dance moves in time with the music -- my owner said we're going to have some tricky choreography! 

My owner says that the more fun we have, the more we'll enjoy learning, and the better and more attentive dance partner I'll be. So, I hope these sessions stay FUN!  

In the video, you'll see that my owner broke this session up into 6 TRAINING STEPS:

STEP 1: For the 1st step, ("introduction to duration attention"), my owner clicked and then rewarded anytime I look up to her face and eyes. (She wasn't allowed to use a lure to get me to do this .... so, lol, she had to wait for me!) She kept changing where she was standing in relation to me .... so we ended up in different positions. I got to stand on this fancy platform that she made. I look pretty snazzy!

STEP 2: For the 2nd step, ("stationary attention in specific positions, no distractions present")  iI had to stand still on the platform while my owner moved into these different positions: 

1)  Me, Sebastian, standing on platform, owner standing on my right side

2)  Me, Sebastian, staying in the standing position on platform while my owner walked over to stand on my LEFT side.

3)  Repeat steps 1 and 2 

4)  Me, Sebastian, standing on the platform, while my owner stood in FRONT of me (like a "come front" except with with a stand)

5) Switch directions … so I faced the other wall, the other way on the platform, and my owner stood in front of me again

6)  Switch from my owner standing in front of me, to my side of Sebastian --- then changing to all sorts of directions.

A few extra goals: 

*I noticed that my owner worked  to increase the time of my attention ("duration") by waiting a bit before clicking ..... but I had to keep watching her all along!  

*She also alternated hands that gave me the treat (it's almost like if I anticipated one hand, she used the other etc.) Pretty tricky. It really made me pay attention!

STEP 3: For this step, ("stationary attention with low-level, controlled distractions"), my owner did a couple of things differently:
1)  Using food, she had me sit in front and watch me. Then she took some food in each hand and opened her hands apart .... I had to keep looking at her and NOT look at the food. (It was REALLY difficult, I'll admit!) When I was successful, she clicked, THEN, brought the food back to the center of her body and then rewarded me by giving me the food! Once again, she alternated which hand gave me the reward. 

2) Then she made it more challenging by lowering her hands a bit! That food was getting closer and closer. I could smell it ..... ahhh..... 

STEP 4: For step 4, ("stationary attention with moderate-level, controlled distractions"), my owner put one of my favorite toys on the ground nearby trying to distract me. That wasn't so difficult really, for a pug I mean, BUT, then she moved the food from one of her hands to the other .... side to side ... back and forth .... ugh. I had to keep watching her all along and NEVER look at the food if I was to ever get a click and treat.
         

STEP 5: For step 5, ("stationary attention with high-level, controlled distractions") she tried to distract me by having someone else stand a bit away from us and squeak the blasted toy over and over. I had to keep watching her, and never look at the squeak toy.

To be honest, this wasn't so difficult for me, SO she pulled out the big guns. She started having her helper "ding" my ding bell. My FAVORITE ALL-TIME BELL! This, was difficult. Wow. Pretty much impossible at first.

THEN, she had her helper start playing my piano. MY PIANO! This was torture. Not only was her helper playing it ALL wrong, but I really, really, really, really love to play my piano. 

Of course, if I ever looked at the piano, I didn't get the click and treat. I had to keep looking at my owner's face and eyes. 

"When I look in your eyes ...... I hear my piano being terrorized ..... and I fear my promised treat will vaporize ....."  
             

STEP 6: For the last step, ("moving attention with no distractions"), my owner introduced movement to try to build my duration attention. This was easy peasy after that piano torture session!

Well, here are the results of our efforts. In ALL HONESTY, who do you think is training whom? Ahem. 

VIDEO